Wanda
by E.K. Young
Summary: When Jamie first met Wanda, she was in Mel's body-she was his sister. When she came back, she was in the angel body that he had chosen-a stranger. She was perfect. Now, Jamie is older and he's starting to learn that all's fair in love and war. J/W/I
1. Chapter 1: Realization

(**A/N**: Title is a working progress...please don't spurn it.)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _The Host_ or any of the characters mentioned in this story, except for the ones I created. This disclaimer is also meant for all chapters after the first for I don't make it a habit to put disclaimers in every chapter.

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**Chapter 1:** Realization

_Stupid!_

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

_You are the biggest idiot in the world James Stryder! How in the hell did you get yourself into this mess?! _

I was moody and I was mentally beating myself up for my stupidity. How I could have let it happen, I'll never know. Hell! I never even thought it's possible...not in the least bit.

But then, one night she starts talking about the Bear people while holding Ian's hand and I suddenly caught myself glaring at their entwined fingers. I envied Ian as his big, calloused hands got to swallow Wanda's tiny, little hands. Ian said something I couldn't hear and then suddenly she starts giggling.

Her little face lit up and she was beautiful.

And suddenly, I was angry. If it had been one of those old cartoons, I'm pretty sure steam would've been coming out of my ears.

I slammed my hands on the table while Wanda was in the middle of a sentence and stormed away, fuming. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I stormed out of the Mess Hall and I saw Jared holding Melanie back from following me—she looked ready to chase after me. I didn't need that.

"Mel, let him go. He's still going through puberty," I heard Jared say as I walked past.

"That's exactly why--" Mel's protest went unheard as Jared shook his head. She sighed and sat down quietly.

When I was finally out of the Mess Hall, and I was sure no one had followed me, I ran. I ran past the lobby and down the corridor that led to the game room. I definitely needed time for myself.

To think.

I crouched in the middle of the room.

_Ugh…Jamie, you are an idiot! Dummy! Stupid! You just had to go and fall in love with Wanda, didn't you?! _For every insult to myself, I hit my head with my fists.

If Wanda could see me now...

_Damn it...This is gonna be hell._


	2. Chapter 2: Puberty

Chapter 2: Puberty

By the time I decided to come out of hiding, everyone was in the Mess Hall, eating. No one acknowledged my moody outbursts earlier—they all understood. After all, they had gone through it too.

I was changing, I needed space.

The moody outburst, the growth spurts, suddenly fleshing out and then gaining muscle. I was growing and turning into a man.

When I was younger, the thought of turning into a man made my chest swell with pride and I swore to myself that I'd be like Jared—strong, able—Jared assured me that it would happen and maybe it would but that seemed so far away.

Another proof of my growth is that Jeb was starting to trust me with more, and more adult chores and Sharon didn't make me go to class as much as usual.

I wasn't sure I liked the change.

I definitely didn't like the jealousy parts of it.

_If I'd been older when I met Wanda…_

I let the thought fade away. If I'd been older when I first met Wanda, I might've hated her, like everybody else did. I might've even tried to kill her myself.

A life without Wanda…it made me shudder just thinking about it.

_Nah…things are better the way they are now. _

I walked to the counter and grabbed bread and a bowl of soup—they've been getting the nice, hearty kind lately. I turned and froze when I saw Wanda leaning against Ian while they chattered under their breath about God-knows-what.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Jeb waving me over. "Hey kid, c'mere. Gotta talk to you."

I scowled and walked over to Jeb, setting down the tray on the table after I reached him. "Hardly a kid anymore, Uncled Jeb," I muttered moodily. "I'm almost as tall as Kyle now."

"Yeah, you are," Jeb grinned before ripping the bread apart with his teeth. "Remember when you came here with Jared—skinny little thing you were. Lookit you know, eh?"

I shrugged and then swirled the soup around in the bowl, glaring at it, pretending it was Ian's head.

"Now we gotta talk, right?"

"About what?"

"'bout Wanda, of course."

My spoon clattered on the tray and I stared at him wide eyed. This man was definitely a genius—he solved the puzzle all too quickly and that was a bit unnerving.

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(**A/N:** Thanks so much for your support, everyone. But the thing is, this is a side project so it's only going to be a couple hundred words every chapter. I'll try updating once or twice a week, more when summer comes. I hope you enjoy this chapter--I'm really trying to get Jamie's feelings down.)


	3. Chapter 3: All's Fair

**Chapter 3:** All's Fair

(**A/N**: First of all, I'd like to apologize about the lack of updates. It was my last year of high school and life was kind of catching up to me. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter…and please don't kill me D: Now you can find out all of the mundane things I'm doing in my life at evilkyoot on Twitter. This way, when I'm not writing you guys have permission to be angry at me :D Seriously, you can be. I'll ever provide the mazookas (marshmallow bazookas) :Db .I now also have a Tumblr and I've taken on a challenge. Please follow me and support me!)

"Wh-Wh…" I fumbled for words before coughing into my hand nervously. "I don't know what you're talking about, Uncle Jeb." To keep myself from talking, I spooned soup into my mouth and took a bite out of the bread.

I chewed slowly—I didn't need to give him anymore fuel for the fire.

"Now, now Jamie I'm no idjit—seen plenty of young ones like you fall in head over heels for pretty young girls like that." Uncle Jeb chuckled as he remembered some long gone memories. "Fact, I was one o' those young ones. Man…I remember Elizabeth Mayfield, she was a fine piece of the female specimen. Blonde hair, blue eyes: looked kinda like Wanda over there." Jeb nodded towards where Wanda and Ian were just finishing up dinner. "Now, there was this other guy who was also after her—man, he had a car, money, you name it—"

I swallowed my mouth full of food and stared moodily into my soup again to avoid staring at Ian and Wanda. I interrupted Jeb in the middle of his story telling, "No offense, Uncle Jeb, but your pep talk isn't so peppy and it's not really helping."

"Ah, sorry about that," Jeb gave me his ear-to-ear grin before taking a chug from his water canister. "Just wanted to tell you my story so that you know I could relate." Jeb picked up his bowl and downed the rest of his soup before standing up and walking away to put away his dirty dishes.

"Wait! Uncle Jeb!" I called after him, I was really curious. I left my tray of food to run after him. I grabbed him by the arm, careful not to hurt him. "What do you mean you can relate?"

Jeb gave me a crooked grin. "All's fair in love and way, Jamie," he said as he pulled away from my grip. "All's fair in love and war," he repeated for my benefit and as he put his tray away, I stood there in the middle of the Cafeteria, completely lost in though.

_So all's fair in love and war, huh?_

(A/N: Here's a preview of the next chapter for you guys.)

**Chapter 4: **Gasping for air

Tense.

That's how it's been around here lately.

Everyone's been tense—everyone knows that I'm in love with Wanda, that I've openly challenged Ian.

The only one who doesn't seem to be aware of this is Wanda herself.


	4. Chapter 4: Gasping for Air

**Chapter 4: **Gasping for air

Tense.

That's how it became in our home.

Everyone became tense—everyone knew that I was in love with Wanda, that I was openly challenging Ian.

The only one who didn't seem aware of it was Wanda herself. She was oblivious to the whole thing—part of me was relieved that she didn't notice because it would have torn her apart to see Ian and I fight over her. But the other part of me was irritated that she was oblivious to my feelings. There were times when I just wanted to shake her by the shoulders and tell her how I felt about her.

But I knew that if I told her too soon she would only withdraw for me—she would avoid me, hoping that I would get over my feelings. If that happened, where would I be standing? Ian would win far too easily.

Ian fought dirty, though. When I saw him with Wanda he would always send me a smug smirk and then he would do something that he knew would make my blood boil—kiss her, hold her hands, make her blush. He knew exactly how angry it made me and knowing that Ian knew how to make me angry made me angrier.

I didn't know what to do and it frustrated me. I had openly challenged Ian so easily but I actually had nothing to vouch for. The odds were against me—Ian already had Wanda and Wanda only thought of me as a sibling.

How the hell was I supposed to turn sibling love into romantic love?

The war with Ian was harder that I thought it'd be and it killed me. We haven't even really started but he was already winning.

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

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**PREVIEW**

**Chapter 5:** A family that raids together

When Uncle Jeb asked for volunteers to accompany Wanda on her monthly 'raid' in the nearby towns and cities I raised my hand before looking around—of course Ian had his hand up, too.


End file.
